The familiar face of Mikhail Gorbachev stares from the front pages as many of Wednesday’s newspapers marked his death by praising the man who helped end the Cold War.
The Guardian has a great picture of the former Soviet leader and the headline “Mikhail Gorbachev 1931-2022: Soviet leader who ended cold war dies aged 91”.
The front-page report said Gorbachev would always be associated with his attempts to reform the former USSR “a process of which he eventually lost control and led to the country’s collapse”.
Photo: Guardian
The Times has a very similar treatment with a large photograph of Gorbachev in his prime and a headline “Gorbachev, Last Leader of the USSR, Dies at 91”.
He notes that he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his efforts to end the arms race with the United States, but was “widely hated” by Russians who resented his loss of status as superpower and the collapse of living standards.
The Telegraph says “Gorbachev dies at 91” and its front-page report says he was a “charming, modernizing” figure hailed in the West while his reforms ended up “leading to a sharp economic decline that led nationalism throughout the region and allowed the oligarchs.” ” to gain control of state-owned assets.
The Metro is the only newspaper in the UK to have led the news in the first editions and has the headline “The world cries a true man of peace”.
The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine has the front page headline “Michail Gorbatschow gestorben” (“Mikhail Gorbachev is dead”) and describes him in glowing terms for his role in the fall of the Berlin Wall and paving the way for German reunification .
“The world-renowned politician was considered one of the fathers of German unity and a pioneer of the end of the Cold War,” he reports. “East Germans in particular still revere ‘Gorbi’, as they call him, as a statesman who brought them freedom more than three decades ago.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Photographer: Frankfurter Allgemeine
In Spain, El Mundo has the story on its front page with the headline “Gorbachov, el leader que abríó Rusia al mundo” (“Gorbachov, the leader who opened Russia to the world dies”.
The Sun makes room for a short front-page story, describing the late Soviet president as a “peacemaker” who helped end the Cold War. “Gorby dies at 91,” reads the headline.
The Express also has a small spot on the front with the headline “Gorbachev, who ends the Cold War, dies.”